Currently, many designs and types of bras and corsets are known, which are adopted to satisfy different women's needs. However, the main shape and configuration for all these products is the same from the very beginning of the bra creation. This includes shaping cups, horizontal and vertical support elements and adjusting elements. Such a design remains the same for majority of variations of ladies underwear, which are currently known. (The patent application of the Russian Federation No. 2096006, IPC A41C 3/00, 20 Nov. 97, bulletin No. 32; the patent application of the Russian Federation No. 1514324A1, IPC A41C 3/00, 15 Oct. 89, bulletin No. 38; the patent application of Ukraine No. 49983, IPC A41C 3/00, 15 Oct. 2002, bulletin No. 10; U.S. Pat. No. 4,245,644, 20 Jan. 1981, U.S. Pat. No. 5,045,019, 3 Sep. 1991 etc.).
However, such designs not always satisfy one of the main women's needs, at which initially all efforts of inventors, designers and tailors were aimed when creating a corset and then a bra. It is all about aesthetics of the woman's breasts and generally about the upper part of the body.
Therefore one of the disadvantages of bras is necessity for using of vertical support elements, such as shoulder-straps, slings, ribbons and the like, which support the main part of the undergarment. Such shoulder-straps fasten to the upper part of the shaping cups from the front side and over the shoulders on the back to a horizontal support portion of the bra forming two equal stripes on the woman's back, in parallel to the shoulder blades.
Such a design is ineffectual in the case when a woman wants to put on evening dress or any other dress having open back or another part of the woman's posture, since shoulder-straps completely extinguish the designer's idea, a feel of lightness of the dress and a feel of elegance of woman's body.
The bra designs with transparent shoulder-straps are known, however, transparency of such shoulder-straps is relative, and they are still visible on the woman's body. Furthermore, such shoulder-straps do not allow the woman's skin to breathe thus increasing perspiration in places of contact with the skin, which leads to chafing, since the material is a kind of plastic and is not very durable as such.
The designs, which do not have vertical support elements of the bra at all, are also known, however, in said designs either stiffer horizontal support elements, such as wires, plastics and the like, or high elasticity materials are used. However, these materials also cause discomfort during prolonged wearing and can be harmful to the woman's health.
The devices for relocation of shoulder-straps of the bra in order to hide them under the cloth are also known. For example, a fastener for retaining and bringing the shoulder-straps together into V-shape is disclosed in JP 2011288680. However, such a device does not meet the disadvantage related with the open back, but merely mitigate visibility of the shoulder-straps near the armpits.
An adjustable bra, which enables the woman to adjust the support, is also known. The bra comprises at least one shoulder-strap and a horizontal support strap. Fastening of the shoulder-strap to the horizontal support strap can be adjusted for attachment at a plurality of positions along the element. The bra may comprise a second shoulder-strap, which is also configured for attachment at a plurality of positions along the support element (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/177,196 of 10 Feb. 2014).
Such a design makes it possible to remove shoulder-straps from the places, where the naked body can be observed, however, they are not removed completely, since the main element of the design is the horizontal support strap to which the shoulder-straps are attached. Such a strap does not allow for providing entirely open back.
The closest analogue is the device for fastening of the shoulder-straps to the garment comprising a guiding element configured for fastening to said garment, and a slider connected to the shoulder-strap, the slider being shaped and dimensioned for sliding engagement with the guiding element (WO 03/096831 (27 Nov. 2003).
This analogue has the same significant disadvantage as in the previous case, the problem of the shoulder-straps can not be solved, as the horizontal support strap makes it impossible to provide entirely open back. Furthermore, the device according to the closest analogues is quite complicated from the technical point of view, resulting in a short lifetime and failure of some elements of the device, which therefore leads to impossibility to use the bra at all.
Taking into account intimate nature of the bra, abrupt failure of some elements thereof may have very negative effects.